Oatmeal

My son loves oatmeal, we all love oatmeal actually. I know instant oatmeal has a bad rap but I still have some in the cabinet. Along side the longer cooking oats actually. I never thought about differences like instant oatmeal being pre-cooked versus old-fashioned oats not being cooked (although that isn't exactly true) but rather the higher sugar and sodium content and other miscellaneous additives the little packets contained.

The reality is, instant oatmeal is an okay choice. It's a good "medium food" to have around. But there is one caveat: Read the ingredients. This is my rule with any packaged food. The best choice for instant oatmeal is plain or regular. It is nutritionally similar to old-fashioned oats. Although, I do buy Cinnamon Spice for my son and while I typically eat the longer cooking oats, I add a tablespoon of brown sugar, a tablespoon of walnuts or pecans and blueberries or bananas. So with this in mind, how do the stats compare? Well in regards to sugar, the flavored instant has 13 grams per serving and the bowl I make has 12 grams. But unless I'm pressed for time, I'd still opt for stove top oatmeal.

Controlling what's in our food whenever possible is always my goal even in my medium food life. Instant oatmeal is fine but oatmeal is one of those foods that is fairly easy to make yourself. As always, I do my best. Some mornings I can be seen serving up a bowl of instant to the family but more often the little packets stay in the cabinet.

Country Choice Organic Old Fashioned Oats ingredients: Organic whole grain rolled oats.

Trader Joe's Organic Cinnamon Spice Instant Oatmeal: Organic rolled oats, organic dehydrated cane juice solids, organic cinnamon, organic spices, sea salt.